Headlights
by WeBuiltThePyramids
Summary: While on his way to Lake Tahoe to see Paige, Walter comes across a car accident.
**So people were theorizing on Tumblr that Paige didn't answer Walter's phone call because they'd been in an accident, I really don't think that's why, her phone was probably off, but some people were asking me on Tumblr to write that. I'm not doing the "memory loss" angle for a few reasons, one of which is someone else is already writing that storyline, but hopefully y'all will like this. Note: it is a oneshot, so please don't review asking me to update. ;)**

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He was already screaming into his phone when he pulled to a stop, giving the location of the accident, begging them to come quickly, there were government agents in the car.

Well, at least one of them was no longer in the car. He could barely make Tim out, but the man was laying on his back a few feet away. He must have gotten out of the car and lost consciousness. Walter put his fingers up to Tim's neck. The pulse was strong. He was breathing. Walter wasn't sure why he was unconscious, but the ambulance was ten minutes away. He would probably be fine.

" _Paige_!" He shouted, almost falling twice - over his own feet and the debris that was at least fifty feet in three directions - as he scrambled around the remains of the car, into the beam of his own vehicle's lights.

"Walter!"

The sound of her voice sent a massive wave of relief rushing through his body. He peered through the broken window.

She had an overhead light on, making her scrapes easy for Walter to see. She had a piece of glass in her hand, and was about three quarters of the way through her seatbelt with it.

"How bad are you hurt?" He saw the seatbelt jerk as it separated into two pieces, and he took a step back.

"I think I'm okay," she said, pushing the door open. Walter grabbed hold of it, pulling it wider to make it easier for her to crawl out. His immense relief to find her awake and conscious evaporated when she began to wiggle her way out of the car, bringing her into the headlights from his car.

" _Paige, don't move_!"

She froze, looking at him in confusion. "What?"

Walter stared, his eyes wide. "Oh...oh God..."

Her eyes followed to where his were looking, and her jaw unhinged when she saw the piece of metal protruding from above her right hip, extending at least ten inches. It looked like a piece of railing.

He darted around the door to stand in front of her. "Be careful."

"It...it doesn't hurt," she said quickly, her voice almost shrill. "That's bad, it's bad if it doesn't hurt, right? Oh my God..." her lip trembled. "Am I going to die? Am I going to die?"

" _No_ ," he said quickly. "You're not going to die, I promise you're not going to die." He put a hand under the metal. "We just have to keep this where it is until the medics get here."

"If it's removed I could bleed out."

"Exactly." He saw the fear in her eyes. "Not once help is here. They know how to remove it, they have supplies. _You and I_ just can't. You have to keep still."

"I can't stay like this," she pointed out. Walter saw she was right. She had a leg tucked under her; the other was barely touching the ground and her toes were bearing most of her weight. She was at an odd angle with the seat of the car; she couldn't balance like that for ten minutes, not when she was already shaky.

He looked around. The ground in front of the car was relatively flat, and there was a large tree about one hundred feet ahead. He looked back at her. "Hey," he said, so she looked at him. "You trust me?"

She nodded. He knew she would.

"Okay," he said, moving in closer to her. He slid an arm around her, his other hand under the metal where it met her body, supporting it. "We're gonna go to that tree over there, okay?"

"Okay."

He could hear the fear in her voice. "We're going to slowly make our way over there, and we're going to sit you there until help comes. And then they'll get you all fixed up and you can see Ralph. Does that sound good?"

She leaned on him as they shuffled forward. "I'm just gonna be moving this as we..."

She stopped, cutting him off. "I thought if it moved I'd die."

"If you're moving, it has to move too," Walter said, "because your skin will be moving, and so will your organs, if we keep this completely still, it'll be resistance and that's bad."

They kept walking, slowly, Walter guiding the metal so it remained 'still' and didn't disrupt her internally. When they reached the tree, turned them around, then eased himself in front of her, letting her hang on to his neck as she slowly lowered herself down to a sitting position, Walter still supporting the injury. He hoped he'd done everything right. He wasn't the doctor of the group.

When she was down, Walter lowered himself beside her, swinging his legs across her lap so the metal rested on them in the position it was in when the injury happened. He slid his arms around her. "Help will be here in just a few minutes. You're going to be fine."

He wanted to run to the other side of the car, shake Tim awake, and shout at him, demand to know how he could have allowed this to happen, even though Walter knew better than anyone that sometimes accidents simply couldn't be avoided. But even when he was reckless, nothing happened to Paige. He always made sure nothing happened to Paige.

"Walter?"

"Yeah?"

He craned his neck to see her as she spoke. She looked confused. "Why are you here? We're two hours from the garage."

"Oh, well..." he cleared his throat. This wasn't how he wanted to do it. But she wouldn't believe any excuse he could come up with on the fly. "I..."

She was looking at him, the puzzled expression still evident on her face.

He took a breath. "I was coming to tell you that I love you."


End file.
